South Africa's journey to rapid recovery well under way: De Lille

The latest tourism statistics show South Africa's "journey to rapid recovery is well under way", with first-quarter figures showing a 102% increase in visitors compared with the same period in 2022.

This is according to tourism minister Patricia de Lille, who released the January to March statistics on Wednesday at Africa's Travel Indaba in Durban.

"Our data is sourced from reliable authorities such as the department of home affairs, which collects information from all ports of entry on a monthly basis. Statistics SA (Stats SA) refines this data in line with international standards and classifications to subset the tourists," she said.

"South African Tourism, the entity of the department of tourism, carries out a monthly survey involving departing foreigners at OR Tambo and Cape Town international airports, and from 12 border posts with the most arrivals."

Arrivals data from Stats SA was used to weigh survey data to quantify trip characteristics such as length of stay, spend and purpose of visit, she said.

"This enables us to estimate international tourism's contribution and value from a demand side. In summary, the arrivals data we present is the same as Stats SA data."

De Lille revealed that South Africa welcomed 2.1-million international visitors in the first quarter of the year.

"While still 21.5% lower than 2019 levels, we're gaining ground rapidly. The African continent led the way again with 1.6-million arrivals, followed by Europe's 387,000 and the Americas' 104,000 visitors.

"The world is rediscovering South Africa and together, we'll not only reach, but surpass pre-Covid numbers."

Speaking of foreign direct spend, De Lille said this increased to R25.3bn in the first quarter of the year, marking a 143.9% increase compared with the first quarter of 2022.

"Tourists from Europe contributed the most spend of R10.8bn, followed by Africa with a collective spend of R9.3bn. The overall foreign spend figure for quarter one this year is tantalisingly close to the R25bn spent between January and March 2019 and showcases the industry's unwavering resilience.

"We witnessed remarkable growth in spending from our Zimbabwean and Mozambican visitors, with Q1 2023 figures reaching R4.4bn (50% above 2019 performance) and R1.1bn (12% above 2019 performance) respectively. However, spend from UK visitors dipped by 27% to R3.2bn, while visitors from the US contributed a robust R2.6bn, surging 28% above 2019 performance.

De Lille said a significant driver of these figures was the lifting of Covid-19 travel restrictions and affordability.

"After two years of restrictions and confinement, travellers are eager to explore wide-open spaces and South Africa offers these in abundance."

Zimbabwe maintained its reign as South Africa's top source market for the fourth year in a row, the minister revealed.

She said more than 500,000 Zimbabweans journeyed to South Africa during the first quarter, compared with 643,000 in the same period in 2019 and 173,000 in 2022. 

This was followed by Mozambique, Lesotho and Eswatini and the UK.

"Across the board, we've seen a 102% surge in total arrivals from 2022 to 2023 during Q1, reflecting South Africa's attractiveness to international visitors. The number of bed nights has also recovered in Q1 2023, but not to the Q1 2019 levels.

"Total bed nights amounted to 28.4-million in Q1 of 2023, this being a 3% decline over Q1 2019, but a remarkable 124% increase over Q1 2022. Another promising trend is the 11% increase in the average length of stay in Q1 2023 compared with 2022."

De Lille said while the pandemic had "undoubtedly left a dent in the tourism industry", the latest figures showed South Africa was back "stronger than ever and geared to catapult our inbound tourism numbers beyond pre-Covid levels".

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